Yeah, but I still think it comes down to character. We might say that statistically, men are more likely to X and women are more likely to do Y, but our characters aren't statistics. I have a female friend who responds like a stereotypical male to everything she does; she grew up only hanging with guys; she was involved in athletics with guys far longer than most; she was in the Army and competed on the male PT tests. By the same token, I know some guys who are fairly effeminate by traditional standards.
So taking into consideration the amount of overlap between male and female reactions, it doesn't make a lot of sense in my mind to say "hmmm, what would a women do here?" For my specific character, it's more like "what would THIS woman do here?" which is the same as asking "what would this person do here?"
That's my general approach on it, at any rate. if you have a female character who acts in what one might consider a traditional, stereotypically feminine way, then that's already built into her character, so asking "what would this person do?" gets you to the same place.
Does that make sense?
Yes & I concur. I was only trying to point out that within a specific character, of a specific gender, you may chose to emphasize traditional societal expectations because that's what that character is...and that's okay. I'd say your question "What would THIS woman do here?" is spot on.